Archive for the 'Gang Starr' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

If things had gone perfectly to plan, fans attending the 8th annual Rock the Bells festival at San Manuel Amphitheater on Saturday would have witnessed 10 highly regarded albums performed by an equal number of classic artists or groups - a truly epic day for any dedicated hip-hop head.

Rapper Opio, from Souls of Mischief, called it early in the day when he stopped to address the crowd about halfway through the group's seminal debut, 93 'til Infinity: "There's so much good sh** here at Rock the Bells, y'all. You're gonna try and see so much sh** and something's gonna get f***ed-up and you're gonna miss something you wanna see, but you won't even care 'cause it's all so PHAT!"

Nothing could have been more true.

As usual with these events, there were some hiccups in the program. Talib Kweli and Mos Def, set to showcase their highly influential Black Star material, failed to show up for their scheduled appearance. Anyone who waited around for that (with no formal announcement of the cancellation) missed earlier acts including Wu-Tang Clan member Masta Killa and affiliate Killah Priest. Additionally, MF Doom scrubbed his appearance two days before the fest (no surprise there; he's known for backing out), and for some reason Common did not perform Be in its entirety as advertised, though his mash-up of favorites from that album with newer cuts was sharp, smooth and heartfelt as always.

The recent passing of one of heavy metal's premier vocalists has reminded me that I've been remiss in saluting a few music figures who have left us in the past month, including the progressive rapper Guru and the legendary Lena Horne.

The former, who died April 19 from cancer after recovering from a coma brought on by cardiac arrest in February, was a sometimes under-celebrated innovator who, like Public Enemy's Chuck D and Spearhead's Michael Franti, made lasting, even revolutionary strides in hip-hop, both with DJ Premier in the group Gang Starr (a standard-bearer of East Coast rap in the '90s) and via his assorted Jazzmatazz projects, which bridged the not-so-wide gap between jazz-fusion and the funkier sounds that burst out of the streets of NYC. Essential recordings: Step in the Arena (1991), Daily Operation (1992) and Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 (1993), featuring Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers and Branford Marsalis.

Of course, speaking of jazz, the great Ms. Horne, who died May 9 from heart failure at 92, merits reams upon reams of laudatory prose for her highly influential work as a supreme vocalist and as a civil-rights activist, in addition to her acting and dancing. I'd need all week to do her justice, so instead I'll direct you to our previous appreciation … while adding to our necrology another towering jazz figure, pianist Hank Jones, who died Sunday at 91.

But the saddest news for rock fans, especially longtime metalheads, is the death of Ronnie James Dio, one of the genre's first and mightiest powerhouse vocalists, whose near-operatic range enlivened Rainbow (briefly), Black Sabbath (off and on from the early '80s to now) and his own self-named band. Having announced last year that he was suffering from stomach cancer, the singer succumbed to the disease on Sunday. He was 67.

Dio, born Ronald James Padavona in Portsmouth, N.H., got his start in little-remembered rockabilly groups in the late '50s and early '60s before establishing the band Elf, one of the earliest metal forebears, in 1967 (initially it was known as the Electric Elves). In '75, by which time Elf had toured with more popular hard-rock outfit Deep Purple, Dio joined with that group's guitarist Ritchie Blackmore to form Rainbow, with which he would record three albums (including 1976's Rising and 1978's equally well-regarded Long Live Rock 'n' Roll) plus a live set before departing in '79 to replace Ozzy Osbourne in a new edition of Black Sabbath.